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What is the essence of D&D
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<blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 7824026" data-attributes="member: 996"><p>IDK where this vision of the past comes from. My experience in the 80s with D&D was a bit of Basic (c1980) and a lot of AD&D. Combat got lots of column-inches of rules & charts that applied to everyone. Magic got a /lot/ of column-inches of spells and more spells and even more spells and items and rules and more rules and exceptions to rules. Monsters got multiple book dedicated to them, and their stat blocks were heavily focused on combat stats. "Exploration" got Thief special abilities, and more than a few column inches of DM advice, example gotchyas, and double talk, but really not much in actual rules or resolution systems or what I'd guess we'd call, today, "player agency" or engagement.</p><p></p><p>OK, maybe I can guess where it came from: The players (probably mostly one or two players) spend hours describing the characters picking their way through a dungeon, probing with 10' poles and listening at doors, and whatnot. And that is punctuated by traps, puzzles, tricks, and combats. The only one of those that likely involved everyone at the table were the combats. The bulk of the game was not combat, the exciting bits were not all combats - the exciting bits that engaged the whole table, though: combat.</p><p></p><p>I guess modern games started in the early 80s, they just didn't necessarily include every D&D group.</p><p></p><p>OK, you're clearly describing 3.x/d20, there.</p><p></p><p>OK. That's interesting. I recall Exalted being held up to ridicule, and thrown out as an example of the extreme worst things an RPG could possibly devolve into. I've never so much as glanced at it, myself.</p><p></p><p></p><p>From another thread, but more relevant here:In the sense that 5e re-captured the Essence of D&D by restoring LFQW, with many, high-impact/versatility spells contrasted against martial beatsticks' grinding DPR, but didn't make it as extreme and obvious as 3e did, with CoDzilla &co.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Tony Vargas, post: 7824026, member: 996"] IDK where this vision of the past comes from. My experience in the 80s with D&D was a bit of Basic (c1980) and a lot of AD&D. Combat got lots of column-inches of rules & charts that applied to everyone. Magic got a /lot/ of column-inches of spells and more spells and even more spells and items and rules and more rules and exceptions to rules. Monsters got multiple book dedicated to them, and their stat blocks were heavily focused on combat stats. "Exploration" got Thief special abilities, and more than a few column inches of DM advice, example gotchyas, and double talk, but really not much in actual rules or resolution systems or what I'd guess we'd call, today, "player agency" or engagement. OK, maybe I can guess where it came from: The players (probably mostly one or two players) spend hours describing the characters picking their way through a dungeon, probing with 10' poles and listening at doors, and whatnot. And that is punctuated by traps, puzzles, tricks, and combats. The only one of those that likely involved everyone at the table were the combats. The bulk of the game was not combat, the exciting bits were not all combats - the exciting bits that engaged the whole table, though: combat. I guess modern games started in the early 80s, they just didn't necessarily include every D&D group. OK, you're clearly describing 3.x/d20, there. OK. That's interesting. I recall Exalted being held up to ridicule, and thrown out as an example of the extreme worst things an RPG could possibly devolve into. I've never so much as glanced at it, myself. From another thread, but more relevant here:In the sense that 5e re-captured the Essence of D&D by restoring LFQW, with many, high-impact/versatility spells contrasted against martial beatsticks' grinding DPR, but didn't make it as extreme and obvious as 3e did, with CoDzilla &co. [/QUOTE]
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